Dell Ultrasharp 2408WFP

Framing the display is a thin black bezel highlighted with silver accents on the top and the bottom. Dell includes video inputs for every possible connection: component, composite, Display Port, DVI (two ports), HDMI, S-Video, and VGA.

The monitor's on-screen display menu is clearly labeled and easy to navigate. Features include picture-in-picture and picture-by-picture, which displays two input sources side-by-side. This model comes with four USB ports--two on the back and two on the left side. Also on the left side, just above the USB ports, is a built-in reader for Compact Flash, MMC, MS, SD, and xD memory cards.

Dell bundles the UltraSharp 2408WFP with a CD containing drivers, a set-up guide, and a users' guide. Hardware extras include four connection cables for Display Port, DVI, USB, and VGA connectivity.

The images produced by this display resulted in a score of Very Good from our PC World lab. The UltraSharp 2408WFP's combination of good performance, input options, adjustability (it tilts, swivels, pivots, and can be adjusted for height), and excellent OSD make it the most full-featured and versatile monitor we've tested.

Regrettably (but understandably) this monitor's high-end performance, myriad features, and input selection come at high price. At about $700, it's one of the most expensive 24-inch displays we've seen.

Falcon Northwest Mach V

The Mach V sports a spanking-new (Nehalem-based) Intel Core i7 965 Extreme processor that's been overclocked from 3.2 GHz to 3.8 GHz using only air cooling. Added to this is more RAM than we've ever seen in a desktop machine--a whopping 12GB of DDR3-1066 memory--along with an Intel 80GB solid state drive for booting and a 1-terabyte, 7200-rpm Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 hard drive for storage. Although it didn't factor into our rating or system rankings chart (we rated all the gaming PCs in our current roundup on performance alone, excluding bundled monitors or peripherals), Falcon will also throw in a high-quality 22-inch Samsung 2243 LCD for an additional $400 on top of the system's $7395 price (as of November 11, 2008).

Although that premium price places it among the most wallet-crippling systems we've reviewed, you definitely get amazing bang for your buck. The Mach V achieved a score of 163 in our WorldBench 6 test suite. That's the highest result we've ever seen, but one that's equaled by two other new gaming machines: Hardcore Computer's Reactor and Xi's MTower HAF-SLI. The Xi pushes the limit for overclocking by cranking an older 3.33-GHz Core 2 Duo E8600 to an eyeball-popping 4.5 GHz, while the Reactor completely submerges its components in nonconductive oil (including a 3.2-GHz QX9770 CPU overclocked to 4 GHz); stay tuned for full reviews.

Helped out by dual 2GB ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics cards in CrossFire mode, the Mach V beat the frame rates of these and other recent gaming PCs for all the games (and resolutions) we threw at it. It even produced a smooth-playing average of 145 frames per second (fps) in Unreal Tournament 3 (under high settings) at 2560 by 1600 resolution. Next best in that taxing test: the Hardcore Computer Reaktor, whose three overclocked nVidia GTX-280 boards (in tri-SLI mode) achieved 113 fps in the same test.

This particular Mach V configuration includes an LG Blu-ray burner/HD-DVD reader, in addition to a Lite-on DVD writer. For expandability, four external 5.25-inch drive bays are open for upgrades, as are four internal 3.5-inch hard-disk bays. Overall, The Mach V's internals are well put together, with all cables neatly grouped and concealed where possible.

The Mach V's Asus P6T Deluxe motherboard holds a good number of ports: eight USB, two Firewire 400, and one eSATA. You also get built-in 5.1-channel audio and two ethernet ports. The front of the case is a touch more anemic, hiding four USB ports and a single Firewire 400 port beneath a locking door. At least there's plenty of room to plug in the Mach V's Logitech G15 keyboard (included). We'd almost rather not plug in its companion mouse, as the Logitech G9's misplaced DPI buttons are hardly satisfying for the kinds of games you'll be playing on this sweet rig.

Though it's loaded to the gills with high-end components, note that key parts of this killer system can't be upgraded without a big purchase, which some may find frustrating. For one thing, it has no available PCI Express x16 slots, which means that adding a new video card will entail replacing the two ATI Radeon HD 4870 cards (top-of-the-line units) that come with the system.

The Mach V is a new King of Speed that crushes every benchmark we threw at it. And for its price, you'd expect nothing less from this ultrapowered gaming machine!

Polywell Minibox 780G-9950

At 9 inches high, 11 inches wide, and 14 inches deep, the MiniBox fits in many places a tower wouldn't. Even so, it still offers enough interior space to accommodate a full-featured micro-ATX Gigabyte MA78GPM-DS2H motherboard, two free 5.25-inch drive bays (one external), a 16x PCIe slot, and two PCI slots. Its width also makes for a physically stable system--great for the living room or a child's first PC. Oh, and it even has a handle that folds out from the front of the system so you can carry the unit around like a 1980s boom box.

The MiniBox model's moniker informs us that it's strictly an AMD AM2+ system, starting with a 780G chip set, continuing with the latest 2.6-GHz Phenom X4 9950 CPU, and following through with a very fast ATI 4870 graphics card. The result of this relatively low-priced ($2350 as of August 8, 2008) combination, with some help from its RAID 0 tandem of 10,000-rpm Western Digital VelociRaptor hard drives, is a level of performance we don't generally see in a small PC--namely, a more-than-competent WorldBench score of 110.

The 4870 card also made for some fast gaming frame rates; it averaged a very playable 135 frames per second in Doom 3 running at 1280 by 1024 with antialiasing enabled. If you're willing to sacrifice some frames per second playing games, you can also configure a MiniBox without the 4870 and save a few bucks.

The MiniBox 780G-9950 system we tested is also a nice choice as a multimedia PC. This price includes a 22-inch Samsung SyncMaster 2253BW wide-screen LCD monitor, and the PC itself has a Blu-ray/HD DVD drive on board with HDMI output (with HDCP copy protection) on the rear panel.

Alienware AREA-51

The included video card, a 2GB ATI Visiontek Radeon HD4870x2, is no slouch for gaming. But it doesn't set any records, either. All in all, the Area 51's guts brought forth an above-average score of 120 on our WorldBench 6 tests--not bad, but still 10 to 20 points behind the fastest systems in our power desktops category.

At least Alienware gives you a small chance to upgrade your system and whip more performance out of this filly. There's space for two more PCI Express x16-friendly video cards, one more hard drive, and two 5.25-inch devices should you want to augment the Area 51's sole LG Electronics GSA-H55 20X Super Multi DVD writer. The Area 51's internals are well-managed and clutter-free, but we're just tired of the outside of the case--there's so much more that could be done over this dead horse of an alien-head design that the company keeps beating consumers over the head with.

For example, the Area 51's EVGA 790i motherboard hits the holy trinity of external connections with its six USB ports, one Firewire 400 port, and one eSATA port. But the front of the chassis only sports two USB and one FireWire 400 port. We might be sticklers for detail, but that's just not very much to work with. It's just barely enough to plug in the Area 51's two awesome peripheral offerings--a Logitech G5 mouse and a G15 keyboard. We're not sure which we like more: the soft, leathery feel of the G5 or the built-in digital orange screen of the ever-informative G15.

We can't bear to shoot Alienware's Area 51, but there's no question that this thoroughbred PC has outlived its days at the top of the system charts. At $3219 (as of December 3, 2008; $380 extra with a bundled Samsung 2253BW monitor), it's far too pricey a starter machine to be acceptable for power users, especially gamers.

CyberPower Power Infinity Pro

Our review unit shipped with 64-bit Windows Vista Ultimate. In our WorldBench 6 Beta 2 test suite, it earned a strong mark of 120. That score fell a bit short, however, of the 124 mark of a CyberPower Infinity Pro that we tested a couple of months ago, which uses the previous-generation, 3-GHz QX6850 Core 2 Extreme CPU. This result echoes the benchmarks that PC World obtained in similar tests comparing the QX9650 with the QX6850 chip that it is supplanting.

In the Photoshop, 3DS Max rendering, and multitasking components of our WorldBench series, the Power Infinity Pro earned the best scores among all power PCs we've recently tested, though its marks were only a few seconds faster than the results of the next-closest models. In some WorldBench application tests (3DS Max DirectX, Windows Media Encoder, and VideoWave), the Power Infinity Pro's scores merely tied those of other systems (the Xi Mtower PCIe and the HP Blackbird 002) that used older CPUs. Most perplexing was the Power Infinity Pro's sluggish performance in the Nero portion of our WorldBench suite, for which its score of 592 seconds was the slowest of the lot. While none of our WorldBench scores reflect the performance gains that Intel predicts for the QX9650 CPU in imaging, 3D rendering, and video encoding, it should be noted that none of the applications in our test suite are optimized to take advantage of the QX9650's new SSE4 instructions, which can greatly speed up tasks such as video encoding (in applications that use SSE4).

On the plus side, the newer Power Infinity Pro posted the fastest scores ever in all of our gaming graphics tests, beating older quad-core models that use the same EVGA 8800 GTX graphics board. The Power Infinity Pro achieved an impressive average of 193 frames per second (fps) while running Doom 3 and 223 fps running Far Cry, both at 1280 by 1024 resolution with antialiasing turned on, well ahead (by about 13 percent) of the second-fastest system, the nVidia GeForce 8800 Ultra-equipped HP Blackbird 002 LCi, which posted results of 170 fps and 198 fps, respectively. That's not the 40 percent that Intel claims for gaming, but it's still pretty darn impressive. Though the Power Infinity Pro came with a single graphics board that performed well in our graphics tests, the system's Asus P5K3 Deluxe motherboard is capable of hosting two graphics cards in a CrossFire setup. (Taking advantage of the feature would preclude using an SLI-compatible card such as the EVGA 8800 GTX card in our test system.)

Without a doubt, one of the Power Infinity Pro's best features is its stylish Cooler Master Cosmos case, which sports sturdy bars on top that are helpful when you're lifting the case--especially because it weighs a ton. The top panel includes an easily accessible connection dock with USB, FireWire, and audio ports, plus an eSATA connector, with additional USB, FireWire, and other ports on the back. Five external drive bays are easily accessed behind the hinged front panel. Our test system included a Lite-On Blu-ray DVD drive, a multiformat DVD burner, and a multiformat card reader drive-bay module, leaving two open bays for expansion.

Opening the side panel (insulated to keep the system's noise levels down) is easy, and the neat and tidy interior has plenty of room for expansion. Adding upgrades couldn't be much easier, thanks to a tool-less design that features push-button locks and pull-out aluminum racks for easy hard-drive installation. But some upgrades could be costly: For example, adding a matching pair of Corsair XMS 1GB DDR3 RAM sticks to raise the system's memory to 4GB would cost about $400. A Thermaltake V1 CPU cooler, four 120mm case fans, and a cooling attachment for the graphics board provide sufficient thermal management.

The $4299 (as of 11/2/07) Power Infinity Pro model we tested represents only one of several different configurations that CyberPower offers. Our test system also came with a generous 1.8 terabytes of hard-disk space, consisting of two 150GB, 10,000-rpm Western Digital Raptor drives (configured in a RAID 0 array) for performance and two 750GB, 7200-rpm Hitachi drives for backup and data storage that can hold hundreds of hours of video.

The included dual Sylvania 22-inch wide-screen monitors (SK2201W-B) have thin bezels that make positioning them closely side by side easier, but you get no height-adjustment control for maximum flexibility in setting them up. The picture quality was very good, with crisp readable text (even at 8 points) and nicely saturated color when we viewed still or moving images. The cordless Logitech MX3200 keyboard presents a host of useful extra keys and a wrist pad that's comfortable to type on. The MX600 laser mouse also benefits from an ergonomic design that fits nicely in the hand.

The CyberPower Power Infinity Pro is clearly aimed at enthusiasts and other early adopters who don't mind paying a premium for the latest technology. But considering that the market has few SSE-4 optimized apps, mainstream users may want to wait a bit longer before taking the plunge

Dell Studio XPS

While the system's 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4850 isn't the fastest graphics card on the market, especially when compared with some of the dual-GPU offerings of other PCs in this category, it still performs well on our Doom 3 and Far Cry benchmarks: The Studio XPS achieved 202 and 236 frames per second, respectively, in those tests. Its WorldBench 6 score of 136 nestles it solidly within the top percentile of power desktops we've tested, coming just 5 points shy of the category leader at the time of writing: Polywell's $4000 Poly X4800-Extreme (equipped with a 3.2-GHz Core 2 Extreme X9770 and 4GB of speedy DDR3-1625 RAM). We'd take the Studio XPS for $2000 less, any day--at least, on paper.

What the paper doesn't show is the Studio XPS's weak internal design: It's disappointing enough to pull the system into the middle of our top-ten list instead of catapulting it toward the top of it. The only noteworthy expansion you're going to get inside of this chassis is room for a single hard drive. That's all, and even then, you have to screw into the side of the chassis in an unorthodox fashion. The system uses its two 5.25-inch bays for a Blu-Ray combo drive and a DVD reader/writer. The sole PCI Express x16 slot is already taken up by the video card, and an included TV tuner steals one of the three available PCI Express x8 slots. This chassis truly is an upgrader's nightmare.

Four rear USB ports join onboard 5.1 surround sound, an optical S/PDIF jack, a single eSATA port, one FireWire 400 port, and one Ethernet port on the back of the machine. The front of the case comes with an above-average offering of four USB ports, one FireWire 400 port, and an included media card reader.

As expected, the Studio XPS comes with a standard Dell media keyboard; its function buttons are useful for Web surfing and media playback, and the keyboard design is nice (even though it's slightly smaller than a typical keyboard). The two-button mouse has two additional back/forward buttons where your thumb rests.

Though standard parts and components can be customized and changed over time, Dell is relatively locked to its proprietary case and components. That's a shame, because in a normal, upgrade-friendly chassis, the Dell Studio XPS would shine as a solid PC for power users. The Studio XPS isn't a bad choice overall, just as long as you can stomach the hardships when you try to upgrade the system.

Dell Inspiron 530

Our test system was based on a 1.8-GHz Intel Pentium dual-core E2160 processor and had two sticks of 1GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM, for a total of 2GB of memory. It came with a 19-inch Dell SE198WFP wide-screen LCD (1440 by 900 native resolution), as well. Most value systems use integrated graphics that rely on main system memory, but the 530's graphics duties are handled by a 128MB nVidia GeForce 8300GS graphics card. The 250GB Western Digital Caviar hard drive provides an average amount of storage space for PCs in this price range, and our test unit had a DVD/CD combo writer, too.

As for performance, the 530 earned a WorldBench 6 Beta 2 score of 73--commendable in the value desktop category, and slightly better than the 71 earned by the Compaq Presario SR5350F, which uses the same Intel Pentium dual-core E2160 CPU. The Inspiron 530 provided the best performance in the 3DS Max DirectX component of the WorldBench suite of all the value systems recently tested. Not surprisingly, therefore, it also earned the top scores among value systems for its graphics performance, making it the best choice for playing simple games. Because its graphics card has only a modest 128MB of memory, however, it still isn't powerful enough for intensive gaming titles, such as Doom 3 and Far Cry. In our Doom 3 tests, the system earned only a subpar score of 20 frames per second running at 1024 by 768 resolution with antialising turned on.

The 530's attractive, glossy white-and-silver midtower case is well ventilated, and its sliding front panel covers an external bay module containing a media card reader and connectivity ports. Inside the 530's case, you'll find that good old-fashioned screws secure the components, so you'll need a screwdriver when installing expansion cards and optical drives. Like most other value systems, the 530 uses a smaller motherboard that supports fewer expansion options than larger (and pricier) boards. Available expansion options include one 5.25-inch external and one 3.5-inch internal drive bay, two PCI and one PCIe x1 card slots (the PCIe x16 slot is filled by the discrete graphics card), and two (out of four) DIMM memory sockets. The 530 lacks FireWire ports, but they can be added as an extra-cost ($30) option.

The Dell monitor delivered sharp text and fine color quality in both still and moving images. The USB-based optical mouse and enhanced keyboard that Dell bundles with this system are comparatively better (in performance and features) than the standard-issue input devices that come with most value systems. Among the keyboard's extras are several quick-launch keys, a retro-style volume knob, and two upstream USB ports. The 530's online-only documentation is exemplary, with thorough, well-written instructions that are (thankfully) specific to the actual model, unlike the more generic documentation that some vendors often include.

If you want a value desktop with an excellent price-to-performance ratio and some room to grow, Dell's Inspiron 530 is arguably the best deal among the budget PCs we've tested recently.